1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a device that grips a common golf ball tee to provide a method of tee setting that allows the user to set the tee to a precisely set depth, and then release the tee to maintain it at the inserted location while removing the device from contact with the tee. Tee setting means to insert the tee into the ground. After setting the tee, the user may then install a golf ball on the tee. The installed golf ball is at a consistent height above the ground thus allowing the golfer repeatability in the driving of the golf ball with a golf club.
2. Description of Related Art
Devices for inserting a golf ball tee into the ground are known in the art. The devices described can be categorized. One category of device attempts to insert the tee into the ground with the ball installed on the tee. Examples of this type of device are U.S. Pat. No. 2,943,856 (Eimerman), U.S. Pat. No. 3,312,468 (Lynch), U.S. Pat. No. 6,338,685 (Posluszny) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,394,515 (Kelcher et al). This type of device has an inherent problem in addition to the complex operation of the device. That is the ball frequently falls off the tee when removing the device after inserting the tee into the ground. This requires time to retrieve the ball and replace it on the tee.
A second category is devices that insert the tee into the ground without a means of holding the tee in the device. Examples of this type of device are U.S. Pat. No. 1,852,956 (Czichos), U.S. Pat. No. 1,634,652 (Czichos), U.S. Pat. No. 3,540,727 (Solomon), U.S. Pat. No. 3,658,331 (Driscoll), U.S. Pat. No. 3,671,036 (Rubino), U.S. Pat. No. 5,885,174 (Barnes), and U.S. Patent Application Publication Number U.S. 2002/01833138 (Malcolm). The normal method of inserting a tee in the ground, is to place a ball on the head of the tee and with both the ball and tee grasped in the hand, press on the ball to insert the tee into the ground. These devices provide a means of setting the tee height but their use takes away the ease and easily applied force of having the smooth ball against the hand. They require the user to hold the tee in the device by some means, either using two hands, or by gripping the device and the tee with one hand. Their use is at best awkward, and at worst uncomfortable.
A third category of device provides a means of gripping the tee to be inserted into the ground. Examples are U.S. Pat. No. 1,902,682 (Walrath), U.S. Pat. No. 2,606,764 (Mason), U.S. Pat. No. 3,074,719 (McKee), U.S. Pat. No. 3,333,848 (Budzinski), U.S. Pat. No. 3,671,037 (Murdock, Jr.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,142,719 (Blood), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,669,646 (Fiocca et al).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,669,646 (Fiocca et al) discloses a long handled tee-positioning device meant for operation from a standing position. The mechanism for holding the tee grips it at the tee body between two spring-loaded jaws that are opened by the tee head being forced between the jaws by the end of a rod. This type of mechanism has a high probability of damaging the tee ball-setting surface since the rod end is essentially flat and can require considerable force to overcome the jaw spring tension in addition to the force required to insert the tee into the ground.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,142,719 (Blood) describes a tee ground insertion device that holds the tee by the tee head using 3-points of a spring or arm. Release of the tee requires the ground friction against the tee body overcome the spring tension against the head. Such a mechanism has a high probability of moving the inserted tee such that the height of the tee head is not uniform for each insertion, in effect negating the objective of the device to obtain a consistent tee height.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,671,037 (Murdock, Jr.) discloses a tee holder with a wedge-shaped slot that holds the tee head by sliding the tee head into the slot and also engages the tee body in a slot in the bottom foot of the device to minimize tipping of the tee as it is inserted. The problem with this device being the difficulty of sliding the device off of the tee that is inserted in the ground. An embodiment provides the device divided at the slots so the device may be opened and each half of the device removed from the tee. Either of these embodiments will require considerable time and the use of both hands to disengage the tee.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,333,848 (Budzinski) proposes a device shaped like a golf ball with a threaded hole that also has two thin, bent resilient members mounted on either side of the hole that in turn have holes in them at the part covering the threaded hole. The holes in the resilient members are offset so when the members are in the relaxed position, the sides of the holes will grip a golf tee body inserted in the holes. The resilient members must be bent sufficiently to allow insertion of the tee head through the holes in both members and into the threaded hole in the device. Once the tee is inserted in the ground, removal of the device requires bending the resilient members sufficiently to allow the tee head to pass through the holes in the members. This device appears to require considerable strength in the hand to bend the resilient members sufficient to insert the tee and to remove the device from the inserted tee. It also has a high probability of changing the height of the tee if the tee head catches on the edges of the holes in the resilient members due to the members not being bent sufficiently.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,074,719 (McKee) discloses a device that traps the tee head in a chamber by swinging shut a swinging portion of the device. Various embodiments of the device employ several configurations of swinging portions. All of the embodiments are small and fail to provide a comfortable way to grip the device to provide the insertion force necessary to insert the tee in hard ground. Each of them also appears to require the use of two hands to remove the device from the inserted tee.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,606,764 (Mason) shows another device that employs a multitude of springs to grip the tee head. This arrangement requires the ground friction against the tee body to overcome the spring tension against the head as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,671,037 (Murdock, Jr.). It is therefore subject to the same problems as that device.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,902,682 (Walrath) describes a tee-positioning device employing 2 tee-holding dogs that grip the tee head and are positioned in the slot of a sleeve. The dogs are released from the tee head by reaching the end of the slot that moves the dogs to the open position. The dogs move with the tee as it is forced into the ground by applying force to a long handle connected to a spring-loaded piston contained in the casing of the device. The dogs are locked in the open position by reaching a shoulder on a latch arm at the end of travel while inserting a tee. The dogs may then be put in the gripping position by inserting a tee and moving the latch arm to disengage them from the arm's shoulder. The complexity of the device appears to require a high manufacturing cost and the resulting device provides a loose grip on the tee that makes the tee prone to cocking in the device as force is applied to drive it into the ground. The complexity therefore provides a device that has a high probably of malfunction.
What is required is a compact, efficient, quick, and accurate tee setter that is positive in it's action of holding, setting, and releasing the golf tee in to the ground in preparation for the user to hit the ball with a club.